The Best Productivity Apps

Siri’s Google alternative is getting smarter and smarter at being your little digital assistant (or friend, depending on how much you love your device). It’s worth a download, especially if you’re using a lot of other Google apps.

This app could not be easier to use: Take a photo of a math problem, let the app do that work. Sure, it’s a bit of a cheat, but if you need a little assist dividing that restaurant bill, it could save you some time.

It might seem excessive to pay $5 for a to-do app, but the simple and sleek UI will motivate you to clear your list, and knock out any lingering items. It also syncs to your iCloud account, so you can make Clear your cross-device management system.

Too many passwords, too little time. This app creates a secure password for your various accounts and them remembers them so you don’t have to. Anyone who’s kept a pad of paper with their passwords on it needs to switch, especially if you’re about to go and download a veritable ton of apps.

You can’t message people via Facebook without the standalone messaging app anymore, so if that’s something you plan on using, Messenger is a necessary download. It’s arguably the most useful thing about Facebook, so you will definitely be using it.

Twitter can be a bit isolating if you’ve never used it before, but even using it to just follow a handful of interesting people or things you’re into (Sports, cooking, comedy? All there) can give you an entertaining few minutes every day.

If you would like to feel young again or connect with The Youths, give Snapchat a shot. If you’re new here, you probably won’t use every feature and facet of the app, but quick photo messaging complete with giant emoji and disappearing videos mean that if nothing else, it’s a fun chat app.

The livestreaming-meets-social category is a growing, and very confusing, one. Even if you don’t want to try and livestream the minutia of your own daily life, being a lurker on everyone else’s uploads can be pretty entertaining.

The Best Sports Apps

Team Stream is Bleacher Report’s mobile app, sending you real-time news about your favorite teams, and livestream video as well. The app also has a lot of Bleacher Report content, so if you’re already a fan of the site, grab this install.

StubHub is great for grabbing tickets to any game in your area. It’s easy to use the app to redeem your tickets as well, and the fact that users can sell via the app means you might be able to save a couple bucks on last-minute tickets.

Are you the type of sports nut who actually, you know, plays sports? If you have some sort of team—be it weekend flag football or a competitive ultimate league—that needs to be organized, TeamSnap will make sure everyone’s at the right place, at the right time, and also share info like rosters and scores.

The Best Fitness Apps

If your fitness journey includes losing weight or tracking your diet, then download Calorie Counter. You can scan food item barcodes or manually enter your meals to get an accurate count on what you’re putting in your body, complete with info on how to maintain or decrease your number in order to lose weight.

The Nike+ Training app has tons of workout videos for various exercises, ability levels, and goals. They all include an instruction element that runs you through a new move each time before you have to try it yourself. You can also accumulate points for your workouts that add up to unlocking “premium” level routines. If you’re looking for something effective, look no further: These are the real deal. You will sweat.

RunKeeper is a simple mapping app that follows you around to plot your run, include interval breakdowns, and ping you with motivation, like telling you if this was your best 5 miles to date, or remind you that this time last week if you were doing a 3K.

For some people, their tablet or smartphone is their gym. If you are OK with paying a super cheap monthly fee, DailyBurn’s workout plans are incredibly entertaining and diverse, and can replace your IRL gym if you really want them to.

The Best Photography Apps

This is your best-of-both-worlds photo editing tool. Darkroom is remarkably simple while also giving you more “pro” level tools than a lot of photo editing apps. You can edit photos without going through the pain of importing them, and also use the app to create your own filters—which can link to your own Instagram account, so who knows, maybe you’ll inspire the next Mayfair-like addition.

Afterlight has a lot in common with Darkroom—it’s sort of like Instagram on steroids. In addition to a huge amount of filters and textures, you can also dive deeper into custom editing and add unique frames to your photos.

If you want to look back on something without going through the painstaking process of creating a video to summarize it all at the end, pony up the $3 for 1 Second Everyday. The app takes a second-long video every day, and then at the end of the period of time you want to save it for, you have a beautiful way to look back.

Calling all selfie fanatics: This is the airbrushing best friend you’re going to want. Sometimes, a filter won’t be able to fix it, and if you want a little boost in the form of digital makeup, Facetune has your back. Er, face.

VSCO is nearly as well known as Instagram but with a much more capable tool set. And the community element is stronger here than in most pro-ish editors, so if you’re looking for an Insta-alternative, it’s a great option.

One of the worst parts of using your device as your camera is storage: photos are going to take up way, way too much of it. Flic is a Tinder-like swipe app that shows you photos and asks if you really want to keep them. The app will show you how much space you’ve cleared by getting rid of a fraction of your brunch photos.

This app brings a feature to your phone that you may have thought disappeared with your forsaken digital camera. Slow Shutter Cam will capture beautiful light trails, and helps improve low light photos as well—for the low price of a buck.

Essential Apps for Your New Tablet and Smartphone

John Holcroft/Getty Images

Reveling in your post-holidays pile of swag? If you were lucky enough to be gifted a new tablet or smartphone, then right about now you’re wondering what the hell to put on it. Whether you want to use it as your one-stop-streaming shop, your library, or a gaming machine, there’s an app or seven we want to alert you of. Good luck with that storage space!

The Best Entertainment Apps

If you have an HBO login (note that I didn’t say it had to be your HBO login), then welcome to the world of killer HBO shows, movies, and documentaries. Don’t have one? You can go ahead and pony up the $15 per month for an all-you-can-eat subscription.

Enjoy a huge catalog of music, on the go, for $10 a month. You can use Spotify’s radio for a predictive playlist, create your own, or enjoy the app’s curated stations. And of course, a la carte sampling of any track in the app’s library of tens of millions of songs.

You’ve seen the commercials, but there’s more reason than Mariah Carey’s endorsement to download this Age of Empires-like game. The strategy war game is focused on building and defending, and it’s what about 90 percent of the people on the bus are doing during your commute.

Take your Internet reading along with you using Pocket. The app will save your reading list, syncing from your desktop browser to the mobile app. And it will download everything, so you can read it even if you don’t have service.

The Best Travel Apps

Sure, it’s full of self-righteous food reviewers, but Yelp is great at finding local events, food, landmarks, and anything else you might want to do. And if you ever wanted to know the qualiry of the bathroom at Starbucks across the street, you can bet someone on Yelp reviewed it.

Don’t want to get lost? Download Google Maps. The app’s traffic and predictive arrival time features have gotten increasingly good, too, so you’ll be up to date on your ETA. (If you have an Android phone, you already have this, but iPhone users will need to download it.)

For travelers who like getting off the beaten path, AllTrails is an excellent resource for finding things to do outside (the app features a variety of activities) and it will tell you exactly how hard the options are and how to get to them. Because, I’m guessing, you don’t have a guide book handy.

The Best Food Apps

If you want food (or really, anything) delivered, Postmates has your back. Now available in most major cities, the service will grab your order from just about any restaurant (or retailer). You can order from within the app and keep track of how long til your grub is delivered, and fairly often the app will throw a deal your way, just for using it.

There’s nothing terribly fancy about AllRecipes, but sometimes that’s best when you’re just trying to cook something. The app’s search is really what makes it worthwhile download: You can narrow recipes by distinct dietary needs or preferences. And the Dinner Spinner feature is the best solution for those “I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO EAT!” moments.

Actually calling and making a reservation is for suckers. OpenTable is the easiest way to grab a table with one click. Open tables are put into the system frequently, so if you’re lucky, you can get a choice Friday night reservation mere hours ahead of time.

Personally, I find grocery shopping to be incredibly cathartic, but if crowded stores and too many options leaves you overwhelmed, Instacart will go to your store (whatever that may be), pick up your items, and deliver them to your place. Instacart uses “trained shoppers” who can spot the best produce, too, so a bag of deep green bananas should never be a problem.

When you aren’t busy easy, perhaps you’d like to get a drink. Mixology is great for making cocktails at home or for finding something delicious to sip on when you’re out. You can also use its cabinet feature, which takes the ingredients you already have and tells your what it can create with them.